Indeed, it's like when people say "such and such was crap tonight, ratings will suffer" - no one knows until they watch! And by then, they're already watching in order to find out...

Haven't seen it, will catch up tomorrow hopefully, but the idea doesn't sound too bad at all. Sundays will always be inflated though and it's never been on a Sunday this early before has it?

Exactly.

No, it hasn't.

Channel 5 is a smarter outfit than people realise. They did go down the ITV 2 route, just as ITV 2 was pulling out of these shows, with drivel like OK TV and that show with Amy Childs, which stiffed, but then realised they didn't want these shows and cancelled most of them. The Bachelor, I assume, has been scrapped as well.
CBB twice a year is a bit of overkill for a format that, while good in Channel 5 terms, is a show that did best in the mid noughties and most people have moved on from. As has been mentioned on here, the secret to IACGMOOH's success is the fact it's never been on more than three weeks a year and has likeable hosts. I don't watch it, but as one of the last celebreality shows on the main channels it confuounds everyone with big ratings.

Hoorat, Russ Abbott chat, as we know the first TV star whose career I knew was going down the toilet when he was demoted to Fridays. Russ' first appearance on BBC1 was with a one-off in 1986 though, without the RT Comedy Guide on me, I think it was on the Spring Bank Holiday. That was repeated on New Year's Day 1987 and there's a video on YouTube of all the BBC1 junctions that night (which with another showing for the To Hull And Back episode on Only Fools meant a whopping two hours of repeats in primetime).

Then he did his first series in September 1986, then a series every year. Russ must be the most forgotten comedian of all time, he was named the Funniest Man Of The Eighties, was on Christmas Day on BBC1 four years running and was undoubtedly one of the Beeb's biggest names. And now everyone's forgotten that and his stuff is never ever repeated.


Which is demented, really, I have no idea why you have Big School and Bad Education on at the same time, I know they're different channels but they're both trailed across the BBC and they do seem virtually identical. And that new Greg Davies sitcom for C4 is also set in a school! Somehow everyone's come up with this concept at the same time.


That would be amazing, but of course it isn't, it's the extra time in the Super Cup. Here are some other multichalle sports ratings from the Broadcast Top 50...
1) What's Billed As Sky Sports News But Is Clearly The End Of The Test Match (Sunday, 7pm, SS2) - 1,084,400
2) Saturday Night Football (Saturday, 5pm, SS1) - 1,005,500
3) Monday Night Football (Monday, 7pm, SS1) - 951,200
4) Super Sunday (Sunday, 3.30pm, SS1) - 888,200
5) Champions League (Wednesday, 7pm, SS1) - 724,900

11) The Ashes (Sunday, 10am, SS2) - 444,500

13) Fulham vs Arsenal (Saturday, 11.30am, BT) - 410,400

19) Championship Football (Sunday, 1pm, SS1) - 398,100

22) The Ashes (Friday, 10am, SS2) - 391,100

32) Belgian Grand Prix (Sunday, 11.30am, SSF1) - 336,000

38) Soccer Saturday (Saturday, 12 noon, SSN) - 325,200
39) What's Billed As Sky Sports News But Is Clearly The End Of The Test Match (Thursday, 7pm, SS2) - 323,200

44) The Ashes (Wednesday, 10am, SS2) - 319,600

47) Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying (Saturday, 12 noon, SSF1) - 311,800


But it was still August! In a later post you even say Strictly is back soon and the first night of The X Factor is an obvious time when BBC1 aren't going to try that hard. LE is such a tough genre to get right and for all the Beeb knew The Puppet Game Show would have been a hit, it certainly sounded alright. It hasn't caught on for whatever reason. These things come in such peaks and troughs.

Through The Keyhole got an amazing rating, clearly a huge success. BUT not wishing to use the V word on here, but I recall the high ratings of a certain other show being written off as ITV were offering "virtually no competition".


That's a terrible idea, the Euromillons would be ratings death. There's a reason they used to show it at half past eleven. If you were going to make Casualty a weeknight show there's no way it would stay fifty minutes, it would be extended to an hour. Not that there's a reason to move it off Saturday, they can shift it around all over the place so it's hardly a huge imposition. ITV would kill for a consistent rater like that.


Don't like that comment, you can't pin all success and failure on one man who had numerous production teams working under him. He is a vastly experienced light entertainment producer with two decades or more of Saturday night shows under his belt (including Pets Win Prizes with Danny Baker, the best Saturday night show ever).


Thought that was a lottery quiz, not that they can't edit the references to the lottery out of it.


Yes, and this is why I can't join in with the hand wringing about BBC1 on Saturday. Until the last twelve months ITV's LE was in an utter state, the likes of Hgh Stakes and Born To Shine were complete rubbish. Ten years ago before Strictly BBC1 was pretty hopeless. Swings and roundabouts. One new hit show and everyone's happy again.

I agree with Steve, ITV LE was a joke two years ago with the expensive flop that was Red or Black and other howlers like Born to Shine. Now they have shows I enjoy, as do at least 5 million others, like TMO, Catchphrase and even Splash. It's Auntie who seems to be producing ratings stinkers like TPGS and Secret Service. Really apart from SCD, what do they have to offer for LE?

Ant and Dec are clearly a lot to do with it, as with Got Talent - the other 2 big guns in this field on ITV, X Factor and Dancing on Ice, haven't had that "great host" effect. It goes back to that debate about good hosts managing to keep a stale formula interesting (or make a mediocre one successful). Of course if it's dull enough, like Red or Black, it will stiff anyway, but saying that I don't recall Ant and Dec getting to do "their thing" much on that show and effectively anyone could have presented it, which only further harmed it...which is good because it was awful.

Though "I'm A Celeb" does have other factors going for it of course.

They're a week earlier with Sunday shows than they were last year. The first one last year overlapped with some of the Paralympic coverage and posted the lowest rating for the show in 5 years.

In 2011 the first Sunday auditions show rated 300,000 lower than the night before. That was the second weekend of September, so again a bit later than this year.

Actually, if we didn't have The X-Factor for comparison, The Voice is very successful. It averaged over 7 million viewers so in reality it is actually a hit.

Yah people do seem to forget this.

Maybe not such an amazing feat if they were exes.


DS reported a peak of 9.08m (exc +1) at 21:00, but Jenny Cummins said 10.3m (inc +1). Was she maybe using a one-minute peak?


Overnights.tv says it started at 21:24 and ended at 22:18, and so will have been tape-checked as 21:25 - 22:20 by DS.



I think Zac would beat Tassium at Pointless.


3.80m (17.0%) for Casualty, down from 4.30m (21.2%) last Saturday. It clashed with TXF for 40 of the 50 minutes and had just half a million knocked off. I don't think that's too bad. The crossover with TXF probably isn't large but there will be some.


We all succumb to wishful thinking on this thread sometimes.


Plenty watch Homes under the Hammer repeats on BBC One, often nearly as many as watch new ones. Don't know about the Eggheads repeats which ran over the summer, but quiz shows tend to repeat fairly well also.


I like the musical icons!


But how would those result shows have rated without that lead-in? We can't know the counterfactual.


Richard Osman said a family from Birmingham won a fitted kitchen. Or didn't, as it now seems.


Overnights.tv says Pointless ran from 18:15 to 19:05, so it clashed with Stepping Out for 35 minutes. I agree with Samuel that Stepping Out averaged about 4m against I Love My Country, assuming it lost only slightly against Pointless. If it lost more significantly, it will have averaged more against ILMC.


It'l presumably do at least OK in the CBB sandwich. But if it then tanks really badly on the Monday, I can't see them moving/dropping all the remaining episodes in such a short timescale. Or if they do, it messes up the whole schedule and they'd need to find replacement 21:00 programming at short notice. It's very...brave!

Re Steve Williams re Russ Abbott

.........and no DVD release either!

Russ entertained a decade, as well as his tv career had enormously successful summer seasons.

Probably the last big variety star.

As you say- all appears forgotten.

EDIT: His BBC shows were never quite a gloriously chaotic as the ITV ones imo, I seem to remember some elaborate storytelling dance routines on the BBC which became a bit boring after a while.

DS don't have access to 5-minute peaks. There's only one thread on the internet they get them from....

His "Atmosphere" record and his appearance in Last of the Summer Wine was cause enough to forget him.

That actually is a good point, and a positive can be taken from tpgs, next time someone comments on a bbc default audience, we just have to mention puppets!

ROB was a dreadful format and even someone like Bruce Forsyth would have struggled with it. BGT and IAC continue to do well as Ant and Dec seem suited to the role and IAC has never gone into overkill mode like BB. If they were to leave, the show would probably die as the format is old now.

So I've watched bad education already, it's been near the top on iplayer all week, how low/high will it rate on Tuesday, I think it could be 300k

To be fair Atmosphere was only three minutes or so (and grannies loved it ), and LOTSW was well past its glory by the time he joined.

But if they switch over or off during broadcast, that depresses the figures. Conversely if it's good, more will stick with it, boosting the average. Plus, theoretically, social-media frenzy about the supposed brilliance of a programme could get friends and family tuning in.


Really? I didn't know that. So that peak was a 15-minute peak and Jenny's was a 5-minute, presumably.

Well I'm going to watch it on Tuesday, on the TV, cos I'm old fashioned like that.

Last series was getting ratings of about 800-900k I think?

You could argue saturation coverage in the redtops helps shows like TXF. The tabloids know this is what their readers watch and promote them as much as they can, in the same way The Independent would probably big up a doumentary on BBC Four, as this is what their readers like. I think redtop support does a lot for talent contests, reality shows and soaps.

Interesting schedule from Five on Friday 13 September:

7:30 Operation Homefront (out of its usual slot by 30 minutes)
8:30 CBB: Finale (first time Five have attempted pre-watershed BB?)
10:00 Celebrity Super Spa (new; will it tank or not?)
11:00 CBB: Finale
11:30 CBB's Bit on the Side

Channel 5 actually has some big programmes - BB, CBB, Dallas, Neighbours, CSI etc. Wentworth Prison, Under The Dome and Celebrity Super Spa could be future hits too. Why doesn't it promote them more across channels?

Think the double auditions work well on X Factor. I preferred last night's show to tonight's but the whole thing does work very well. I thi k people will warm to it as they get used to it. No idea how anyone could find it confusing though, it was pretty simple. I'd say that's more the problem of anyone who did find it confusing than the show itself.

They had an eviction at 8 once to launch Dallas at 9